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Cod with salsa and feta

baked cod with salsa

I usually have little or no luck cooking fish. I’m good with bivalves and crustaceans, even cephlapods…but anything with scales and gills totally eludes any culinary excellence in my hands. However, in my pursuit to improve my nutrition I continue to try. My most common mistake with fish is to overcook it into a mush. Trial and error has taught me that frozen cod filets have a texture, when cooked, that I find acceptable. Plus they’re cost effective, easy to find, and nutritionally excellent.

Really this isn’t a recipe at all…this is me just showing off a picture of my most perfect fish dish ever. It’s cod with salsa and feta cheese, baked for about 20 minutes and then served. I hesitate to offer any cooking advice on how to create this fine meal because it seems like it may have been a fluke…I mean really, good fish…from my own kitchen…no way!

The cod was purchased at Costco and is each portion is individually wrapped and sealed in plastic. I ran cool water over the frozen, wrapped portions while I assembled the other ingredients. That may have taken all of 10 minutes and I probably turned them over half way through. Once they were less frozen I arranged them in a shallow baking dish with some olive oil rubbed over them. I then spooned on a large amount of fresh salsa, also purchased at Costco. Then I crumbled on some locally produced goat’s milk feta, shoved it into a 350° oven and baked it until the internal temperature of the fish reached 140°.

I attribute the success of this dish to several things…the salsa from Costco is excellent, almost better than my own in late August, the cheese from my friend Diana is superb, I like cod, and I used my trusty thermometer to gauge when the fish was cooked and therefore I didn’t screw it up.

The best part about this dish is the flavor. The cod is firm and almost sweet, the salsa adds a fabulous mouthful of zestiness and the cheese is fabulous…the little crusty brown bits have a savory flavor that compliments the other components. Plus it’s low fat, low cal, quick and easy. I love it!

June 24, 2009 | Filed Under beef, fish, poultry, pork, favorite products, food, geek fast food, low carb, low cal, lowfat, quick and easy, recipe | 7 Comments 

Usinger sausages

Usinger's chicken cordon bleu sausage

Somehow I’ve managed to make a big mistake, I’m not sure how it happened but I hang my head in shame. I’ve lived in Wisconsin for 8 years and I’m just now finding out about Usinger’s sausages. It seems unthinkable… all the sausages I could have eaten but didn’t. I promise to make up for lost time though, they are that good.

I’ve always been crazy about sausages, ever since the ’80s when Bruce Aidell introduced the Bay Area to his delightful and tasty sausage blends. Then as per usual many other companies jumped into the fray seeing that they could make a fast buck and many, many, bad sausages were made. Here in town our Whole Foods makes the worst sausages on earth…they disgust me they are so bad. I know that might sound harsh, but really, they’re awful!

But let me tell you, these Usinger’s sausages are fabulous. We tried the chicken cordon bleu, named as such because they have some ham and cheese in them, and they have a juicy, big flavor that just knocked us over. They’re already cooked so I heated them up and gave them a nice brown finish. It made for a quick and easy weeknight dinner with a side of spinach and some caramelized onions and fennel.

Usinger’s is a family owned and operated business located in Milwaukee. They have a ton of good-looking products that I’m looking forward to trying.

Note: they didn’t pay me or ask me to say these nice things, because you know I wouldn’t do that.

Another note: Thanks to everyone who so kindly let me know about the php error at the bottom of my blog. It was a nightmare to try and fix, mostly because my theme was ancient and the developer dropped off the face of the earth. I’ve been fiddling about with it for awhile trying to fix it and today I gave up and adopted a new theme that I hope will remain current for another few years. Let me know if you see any issues or have any problems.

June 11, 2008 | Filed Under Local, Wisconsin, beef, fish, poultry, pork, favorite products, food, geek fast food, low carb, low cal, quick and easy | 8 Comments 

Rhubarb pie and the farmers’ market

rhubarb

It’s been a brisk week in Wisconsin. I’ve gone through these days trying to decide if a sweater was necessary or if it really was as warm as I hoped. Usually a sweater improved the situation. Because of the briskness I took the opportunity to fix a few of my cold weather favorites that I was craving. Most notable was my black bean soup. There isn’t any photos because, well, we ate it… and nope, we didn’t stop to take pictures. It was good though and it always reminds me of the first time I made it in San Francisco. My version is a riff on Deborah Madison’s recipe from her Green’s cookbook. I’ve made it so many times over the past 20 years and it always satisfies with its spicy beaniness.

I’ve made a few rhubarb pies while it’s still in season. Fortunately I saved some of the frozen strawberries from last year’s bounty so we could have our favorite strawberry rhubarb pie. I think I’ll pick up some more rhubarb at the farmers’ market tomorrow…we never tire of pie and this might be the last weekend for rhubarb.

I’ve been thinking about our farmer friends a lot this week. Gas went up another 10 cents and I’m noticing some price increases at the grocery store…although I must admit that the items I buy at the store are few, they are things like flour, olive oil, butter (if I don’t make my own), chocolate, coffee, and wine. The farmers who faithfully show up to the market each week so we can have eggs, yogurt, milk, cheese, veg, fruit, mushrooms, and meat have to be feeling the pinch. I know from experience that the profit margin for most farmers is pretty thin and I’ve never known a rich farmer…at least if you judge riches by money. I do know a lot of happy farmers.

All of this is just to say that if you’re going out tomorrow, stop by a farmers’ market. If you happen to live in Madison you really should consider going to the best farmers’ market, the Westside Community Market. Nope, they don’t pay me to say that…I just say it because it’s true. I even have a list of 10 reasons why the Westside Side Community Market rocks:

  1. You can walk in any direction you want. That’s right folks, no counter-clockwise march here…just flit about and enjoy.
  2. Nick Kirch and the crew from Blue Marble Dairy will be there and their dairy products are awesome. So fresh and delicious. I love their milk and cream.
  3. Eric Johnson from Jordandal Farm will have chickens this week…apparently many chickens…I’m seriously excited because that means it’s BBQ Bird time…woot.
  4. Madison Sourdough’s perfect pain au chocolat. Their sourdough loaf is my favorite for sandwiches. The baguettes…arguably the best outside of Paris.
  5. The mushroom man had such huge morels last week…will he have them again this week?
  6. Bruce Workman from Edelweiss Cremery will be there with his Emmenthaler cheese. I also have a soft spot for his Muenster cheese.
  7. Peter Potter and his crackers…add any of his flavorful flatties to that Muenster and you’ve got the perfect afternoon snack.
  8. Dreamfarm’s eggs. I don’t know about you but I love Diana’s eggs. Lately we’ve been getting lots of double yolks…always a sign of a lucky day.
  9. Dreamfarm’s goat cheeses. I think that that Diana’s rosebud cheese is my favorite.
  10. Maple Syrup guy will be there only 2 more weeks…time to stock up.

Oh, don’t forget the rhubarb! Here’s my recipe.
rhubarb pie

May 23, 2008 | Filed Under Local, Westside Community Market, baking, ethical eating, farmers market, favorite products, food, food porn, fruit and nuts, pie, quick and easy, recipe, sweets | 5 Comments 

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